I recently read a very
interesting book called "You Must Be Very Intelligent: The PhD
Delusion" written by former Edinburgh chemistry PhD student Karin Bodewitz (@KarinBodewitz).
As someone also going through my PhD in chemistry, I could identify with a lot
of her personal struggles in academia (although thankfully my supervisor isn't
prone to frequent bursts of anger!)
The academic pandemic of imposter
syndrome is frequently mentioned throughout the story, and I'm sure everyone
can/will identify with this struggle at some point in their career. However, I
want to talk about the idea behind the title of the book - the idea that
everyone with a PhD must be very intelligent.
Many people, when they find out
I'm doing a PhD, say "oh you must be very intelligent!" and when they
hear it's in chemistry they reiterate that sentiment. Either that or "oh,
so you're like that guy from Breaking Bad - are you making drugs?"
No, I
am not making drugs!
Additionally, my girlfriend often
says, "I can't believe you're doing PhD, you're so smart!" and is
mind-blown by the stuff she sees me reading in bed sometimes. She often says
she feels inferior, like she's dumb, because she's not at PhD level. Now, she
is a teacher, a teacher of maths and science. Without people like her, people
like me would never even make it to university, never mind PhD. In fact, it's
my own high school chemistry teacher who is responsible for convincing me to
study chemistry at university in the first place, leading me to where I am
today. So, every time my girlfriend claims she is "dumb", I try to
reassure her that she most definitely is not - she's just not as good as me in
one very specific area of chemistry!
I read many stories on Twitter,
and I have seen plenty of examples in my own workplace, of people who are doing
PhDs or already have PhDs, doing things that, quite frankly, are stupid - as if
they have no common sense. The more I read the stories, and the more I see with
my own eyes, I realise that doing/having a PhD, and possibly having many high
impact publications, does not necessarily make someone a super-intellectual
being - it simply means they are good at what they do for a living (chemistry).
Outside of their day-to-day work – robotically setting up reaction after
reaction, and doing column after column - they appear to have very little
common sense, even in some of the most basic of tasks.
So, to sum up for all those
non-PhDs, and specifically those non-chemistry non-PhDs, just because someone
is doing a PhD in chemistry, that does not mean they are VERY intelligent, it
just makes them a good chemist (and even THAT is not always true!)
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| Image taken from: https://turtleboysports.com/best-show-of-all-time-true-detective-house-of-cards-the-wire-sopranos-or-breaking-bad/ |
P.S. You should totally read Karin's book - it's unputdownable!
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